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Written on: March 24th, 2009 in Learning Journeys
Kathy here: With 10 weeks of experimentation under my belt, today I report back to you about my newsfeed aggregator adventure. Picture me logging into my email each morning; clicking open the digest; and then clicking open my mind for what has arrived in my mailbox from cyberspace the day before. Some days the updates are short; some days the updates are a bit too long…it doesn't matter. This process of dipping my toes into pools of information, commentary and art exhilarates me every time. Likewise, the format has helped delineate my current learning in a bunch of ways!
Here's how:
*Remember the original intent was to get me/keep me up to speed with new tech toys and terms. Has it worked? Absolutely! As I work through the digest, I keep running lists of bits that beg for definition or additional investigation. For instance, I now know about zombie computers…and Joomla…and Gravatar…and mashing.
*The links in the digest are live. My web extends directly out of the context that led me there fostering deeper understanding and encouraging more discoveries.
*My "Must Read" list has never been richer thanks to the reviews and recommendations…with full graphic beauty…that the digest delivers to me.
The paralysis mentioned in the title? Well, that stems from my now-near-automatic tendency to add a site to my list. I'm up to 15 entries. But, one must draw the line somewhere, right? Otherwise, this discreet little tool will become a weighted thing that fails to serve. So, I just deleted Career Renegade and TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. How are you, not just managing, but flourishing amid this bombardment of information? We can use all the help we can get, can't we?
Written on: March 24th, 2009 in News
At this particular time of budgetary woe- both individual and institutional- it becomes more and more important to know that you’re receiving value from the things you buy and the things you pay for.
Movie theater and video store visits, trips to the bookstore, mornings at the local cafe…other than giant buckets of soda, your local library can match most of what you’ll receive from those outlays without any money leaving your pocket! One English library system even uses the line “Buy none — get thirty free!” to promote library services. We can do better than that in the Delaware Library Catalog, where patrons can check out up to fifty items at once.
You can get some idea of the potential savings you either could make by making a move to your local library, or the savings you are already making, by taking a moment to use our new “library value calculator” (click here to open in a new window). Costs of various items you can find and use at your local library are based on local measures where possible, including movie and museum admission, average costs of books and magazines, and video rental fees.
Written on: March 23rd, 2009 in News
While I am the biggest fan of our library catalog portal page, which is full of helpful and entertaining content, I do understand how some people might want to skip over it and go straight to their own account to access the library resources.
To this end, it is possible for patrons to customize a URL that logs them in automatically to their library account- with the strong caveat that you should only do this on your home or private computer, and not share it with anyone, because it embeds your account number and password directly into the link.
To create the custom login URL, simply add the appropriate info to the xxxx fields in the following link, paste it into your browser and bookmark, or create a desktop shortcut. user_id is the barcode number from your library card and password is the four-character login that you use to access your account:
http://ilsapp.lib.de.us/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/x/0/57/49/?user_id=xxxxxxxxxx&password=xxxx
Written on: March 22nd, 2009 in Reviews
Your weekly links to selected items from the New York Times book review section. And feel free to chime in with any recommendations or interesting titles you might have just seen.
Have a great week! See you in the library soon.
Written on: March 20th, 2009 in News
State government, like any large organization, produces a tremendous amount of information on a daily basis, much of which could be of interest to different individuals and interest groups within the state, if only they could find it!
While the state continues to move forward in finding ways to communicate with its citizens, State agencies have been using listserv technology for many years to distribute alerts and announcement by email, as well as provide forums for discussions of area of interest and concern. You can see a list of all state agency listserv forums at this link.
These lists are used by different agencies to distribute media releases, announce meetings or agendas of meetings, or gather feedback from interested parties on the issues that concern the agency.
DNREC has a the most lists by agency available, from beach quality advisory bulletins to mosquito spraying announcements.
There are a number of different alert services available from the
Delaware Information Subscription Service– not only school closing announcements, but also sex offender registry notifications, legislative and regulatory announcements that can be customized to your specific area of interest or concern, press releases from the Governor’s Office, and the Delaware Public Archives’ “This Day in Delaware History” daily bulletin.
Written on: March 18th, 2009 in News
Written on: March 18th, 2009 in News
Written on: March 18th, 2009 in News
Written on: March 16th, 2009 in News
Over the last week, I’ve travelled far downstate to Delmar (twice), Selbyville, Laurel, and Bethany, visiting the public libraries and doing some training and presentations to library staff. Before working at the Division of Libraries, the sum total of my downstate travels in 15 years of living in Delaware was comprised of innumerable trips to Rehoboth and Lewes.
It’s a nice time to travel in Southern Delaware- fields and trees are starting to sprout and bud and there’s no pesky beach traffic. My favorite drive last week was the stretch between Delmar and Selbyville, cutting straight through the Great Cypress Swamp on Rt. 54. It may be that this local landscape hasn’t changed much since the Federal Works Project Administration’s writers’ project wrote about it in 1938 in Delaware: A Guide to the First State. Its certainly a strangely beautiful and peaceful stretch of driving in between meetings. And not only did I see the largest herd of deer I have seen in years, running through a barely greening field in bright sunshine, I also drove past a parked fleet of watermelon buses, which I had read about last year in a News-Journal article, but had never seen before.
Written on: March 15th, 2009 in News
Just as a reminder, I have been using Tabbloid to push updates of the blogs I follow to my email in a digest format. This format has helped add real value to those notices for me. Here’s how:
The downside? I now have way too many books at home waiting to be read. What a delightful problem.
Note: Colleagues on WebJunction just alerted me to another service called feedmyinbox that accomplishes the same task as Tabbloid…give one of them a try and let us know what you think.
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